Effects of dynamic viscosity and nonlinear thermal radiation on free convective flow through a vertical porous channel

Abstract

Abstract The present paper investigates the effects of dynamic viscosity and nonlinear thermal radiation on free convective flow through a vertical porous channel. The study is aimed at finding the possible effects of changing viscosity and nonlinear thermal radiation on the flow characteristics of the fluid. In order to do this, nonlinear Roseland heat diffusion and dynamic fluid viscosity are used to analyze the flow formation which as a consequence resulted to high nonlinear flow equations. Due to this, a semi-analytic method of solution popularly called Adomian decomposition method (ADM) is used to split the equations into series after which computer simulation is deployed for the final solution of the equations. Results under the influence of the parameters of interest on the velocity, temperature, Nusselt number and skin friction are computed, presented and discussed. Similarly, results achieved here are validated using the published study of Singh and Paul [1] where good agreement was found between the two. Furthermore, some published studies are also used to compare with the results attained here and the comparisons show that the use of linear radiation and constant viscosity undermined the flow characteristics. This study will have application in filtration and purification processes, polymer processing industries, coating of metals and many more.